Missing: 1 Police Car, 1 Indian

Eagle Eye Helps Man Find Stolen `Yard Trash'

KING WILLIAM — Had William Perritt kept as silent as a cigar-store Indian, he might not have gotten his stolen curio back.

Perritt's assistance as a sleuth helped police arrest a suspect in connection with the theft.

Perritt was driving to the county landfill when he spotted the life-size ceramic cigar store Indian that he had decorated with Christmas lights standing in the snow on the lawn of a residence on Route 30 next to the Sharon Indian School.

FOR THE RECORD - Published correction ran Wednesday, January 3, 1990. An article incorrectly said William Perritt had put Christmas lights on a cigar-store Indian figure that was stolen from him. The figure was taken from inside Perritt's former residence, then decorated and displayed on a lawn.

He said he knew it was the one he had stored in a friend's cottage on the Mattaponi River that had recently been rifled. The cigars, painted white to look like cigarettes helped him identify it.

Perritt said he informed the Sheriff's Department, and Sheriff W. Wayne Healy loaded the Indian into the back of a truck to take to his office, where Perritt identified it Friday morning.

"Although it's a horribly tacky piece of yard trash, I'm glad to have it back because it has sentimental value," Perritt said.

William Long, 28, was arrested Wednesday for breaking and entering the cottage where Perritt stored the Indian figure and other items, an officer at the Middle Peninsula Regional Security Center in Saluda said. Long is being held there on a $1,500 bond, said Officer Ronald Dentler.

Mitch Mason of Richmond has rented the cottage, Perritt's former residence, and visits only periodically, Perritt said.

Perritt went to the cottage Friday and found various items missing, including the electric meter, windows and board games.

Long rents an adjacent cottage. Both are on Route 600 on the Mattaponi River.